No. 2 UCSB Completes its Regular Season with 2-0 Win Over UC Davis

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. -
Second-ranked UC Santa Barbara (14-3-2, 8-1-1) completed its regular season schedule on Saturday in fitting fashion - with a 2-0 shutout victory over visiting UC Davis (6-12-1, 3-7-0) at Meredith Field at Harder Stadium. The shutout was the Gauchos' 13th of the season and ninth in Big West play.

The shutout was also the 13th by junior goalkeeper Sam Hayden, who has now tied the UCSB record for single season shutouts, which was set by Dan Kennedy in 2004. If the Gauchos are able to post two more, they will tie the single season team shutout record, which was set by the 2004 squad.

UCSB kicked off the evening by honoring Gaucho seniors C.J. Cintas, Martin Hedevag, David Walker and Jonathan Zearh, who were playing their final regular season match at Harder Stadium.

Following the Senior Day ceremony, the Gauchos quickly got down to business. UCSB came out on fire and tallied five of their six shots in first half in the opening 20 minutes. Walker had back-to-back shots go wide while Michael Nonni and C.J. Cintas each saw shots hit the post as the score remained deadlocked at 0-0.

With less than two minutes remaining in the half, Josue Madueno passed the ball to Walker inside the box, who turned and had the goalie beat, but his shot hit the foot of a Aggie defender, keeping the Gauchos off the scoreboard in the first half.

It was in the 65th minute that the Gauchos finally put the ball away. Hedevag cleared the ball to Walker who headed it to Nonni. The freshman had gotten behind his defenders and he fired the ball into the Davis goal for his sixth goal of the year.

Just over two minutes later, UCSB struck again. Walker fired a shot that UC Davis' Ethan Shawlee attempted to clear off the line. The attempt failed and the ball made it into the Aggie goal to put the Gauchos ahead, 2-0.

In goal, Hayden made five stops for UCSB during the match. Walker led all players with five shots and Nonni had four. Both forwards recorded two on-frame.

"Tonight was a very, very good effort on our parts," said head coach Tim Vom Steeg. "I thought we created a lot of good goal scoring opportunities. Our defense continued to play like it has been playing and Sam had two very big saves for us. It was a great crowd for Senior Night and we are very happy to have won tonight and now we are looking forward to Wednesday."

UCSB - which clinched the regular season Big West crown outright and the No. 1 seed into the conference tournament with Wednesday's tie at Cal Poly - will host No. 4 seeded Cal State Northridge in a Big West semifinal game at 7 p.m. on Wednesday at Harder Stadium.

For tickets, call (805) 893-UCSB, visit the Ticket Office located inside the Intercollegiate Athletics building on campus or click here.

Tonight's game was sponsored by the Santa Barbara Airport, the official airport of UCSB Athletics. Five major airlines - Alaska, Delta, United and USAirways - serve the Santa Barbara Airport with nonstop flights and worldwide connections. So break away and fly Santa Barbara.